This time last year we were in Málaga. Would you like to have a look at the town centre? Here you are.
This image is a bit up-and-down-and-all-over-the-place. That’s because it’s a reflection in a delivery van’s window.
Uptown Málaga
Category: Spain
Cavalcada de Reis
It’s 5th January. Tonight, one of the three kings (Balthazar? Melchior? Caspar? You can choose) will steal into your house and deliver you presents, as once they did to the infant Jesus. That’s if you live in the Spanish speaking world of course. Before that though, they – or their stand-ins – parade through the streets of every city and town they can find. There’s an eruption of lights, gaiety, colour, as the three kings and a cast of musicians, dancers, and hangers on of every kind process slowly through the streets. Joy and delight is uppermost, whether you attend the no-expense spared slickly presented civic offering, as we did in Barcelona in 2018 and 2019, or enjoy a more low-key event put together by your local community as we did in 2020.
These are not the best photos you’ll ever see of the Cavalcadas, But they might give you a small taste of this upbeat, family focused event. Which sadly, this year, will not be taking place. Of course.
An Upmarket Grocer
This time last year, we were in Barcelona to spend Reyes – the Festival of the Three Kings, and traditionally a bigger deal than Christmas (Presents! From the kings!) – with Emily’s Catalan family. Here we are outside what’s considered the best grocer’s shop in town, all gussied up for festive shopping.
If you think I’ve muddled up my photos: well, the shop window did that, by reflecting the street scene as well as allowing us to see the goods on offer.
Organic Geometry.
I am very late in joining Jude’s Photo Challenge #51, but here I am. She invites us to make a collage of images, some of which have strong geometric shapes, others of which are organic in form. I had fun looking back though my collection. And what I soon realised was how hard it is to determine what makes a good photo when those images are so bound up with the memories they represent. I suppose that’s what makes me a snapshot-ist rather than a photographer.
I also found myself choosing photos which were primarily geometric – of buildings and so on, but which were enlivened in some way by more organic forms. So Jude, I may not have quite stuck to your brief (again!) but you’ve made me think (again!)
I like this recent photo of Fountains Abbey, that the severe geometry of the ruined building, its dull grey stone, is enlivened by the informal way the autumn branches frame the scene. 
This photo, taken in Granada, is a favourite too. The extravagant decoration of the window frames softens the geometry of the windows: but as a reflected image, the whole thing dissolves completely into something much more organic. 
This is geometric alright: taken from a viewing platform near the Thames in London. I like that even the frame is emphasised by the vertical lines of the shelter in which this viewing window was situated. 
This doesn’t qualify as a fine photo. More of a Christmas puzzle. This grocer’s shop in Barcelona displays not only its wares, but the buildings and street furniture in the street it faces into. 
Liverpool. I’m looking out from the Catholic Cathedral up the road to its Anglican equivalent. I like all those bright verticals guiding your eye up that unremarkable road. 
I had to have a drystone wall. This Yorkshire feature, solid and strong, contrasts with the distant landscape dissolving into the mist.
The featured photo shows Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire. Nobody could accuse them of being geometric.
More postcards – and from Cádiz again
I have said it before, and I expect I shall say it again, but our few days in Cádiz earlier this year – this year! – are part of another life – a life I want to remember and treasure. And Jude provides an opportunity in her Travel Challenge. She’s hoping that outline, rather than three dimensional qualities will come to the fore in our choices of photo. As I looked through my archive, I realised that Cádiz fits the bill, yet again.
It’s nearly all about the seafront. Those palm trees! Those street lights!
Or we could look beyond the old city to industry and modern life in the distance.
Or we could go indoors – first to climb the Cathedral tower and to inspect the old clock workings: before going to a traditional sherry bar, Manzanilla, to enjoy a quiet drink and a snack surrounded by those barrels of maturing sherry ¡Salud!
A window in a bad way
Tomorrow, for our regular Tuesday Day Out, we’re taking (another) trip to Cádiz. We’re going to spend time near the sea and pop to a couple of places in town. But today I want to take you instead to Plaza de España. Here is a handsome house in a handsome area. But now it’s down on its uppers. No longer smart, it’s still extremely characterful. I thought it deserved its fifteen minutes of fame.
Noticing the notices: a Saturday smile.
Trawling through my photos looking for something I couldn’t find, I came across these.
No driver in India needs to be asked twice to use their horn. At any time of the day or night. 
I didn’t stay here …. 
… or take this advice 
Wensleydale Railway. We shut the gate. 
Sadly, we saw no red squirrels in Dumfries and Galloway 
Cádiz 
So we didn’t. 
I can’t remember where we spotted this pub. Just as well. 
‘Going to the hairdresser is the best natural anti-depressant’: Cádiz.
Especially after Lockdown …
The featured photo comes from RSPB Saltholme.
A Sunset Symphony
Was it really in January this year that we were in Cádiz? It feels like another era, but one I can summon up in my head by remembering the glory of the sunsets we saw there. You’ll have seen at least some of these photos before, but this is your Virtual Holiday for the week. I’m presenting them to Jude for her Photo Challenge this week, and to Becky – well, one of them anyway – for her October Squares. How kind of me to share!
My Kind of View from My Kind of Window
It’s time for another Virtual Vacation, Let’s go to Seville, just for the day. If we pop into this bar, we can look through its window, and see for ourselves the view of la Giralda and the city centre which is currently reflected onto the outside of it. Which is kind of fun.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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